100 Kericho teachers not getting allowances

AT least 100 teachers from public schools in Kericho country are not getting hardship allowances after the Teachers Service Commission truck them off the list of beneficiaries. The affected teachers in schools that have been gazetted in Soin division in Kericho district to benefit from the allowances since 1997.

The district's Kenya National Of Union of Teachers branch executive Secretary Stanley Mutai said TSC office in Kericho influenced the de-listing of the teachers in November last year without involving district education board. ''The TSC in Kericho, which is headed by somebody who is not versed with geographical set up of the area capitalised on administration boundary changes that pushed some of the locations that were in the gazetted areas on flimsy grounds that they had ceased to be in hardship zones,'' said Mutai.

''The change in administrative boundaries does not mean change in climatic conditions which some officials at the Kericho TSC office would want to believe before they went a head to strike off the teachers from the list.'' Speaking to the press at the weekend, Mutai told TSC to pay the teachers their allowances. "I have already raised the matter with Education minister Mutula Kilonza and he has assured me he will discuss the matter with stakeholders during his visit to Bureti district this week" said Mutai.